
EA_5JL 




A 



ttwp itt the pi^Itt. 



A THANKSGIVING SERMON, 






PREACHED IN EMMANUEL CHURCH, BALTIMORE, NOV. 20, 1863. 



BY 



^ 



REV. N. H. SCHENCK. 



HECTOR. 




BALTIMORE: 
ENTZ & BASH 

1863. 



•3 



I 



SERMON. 

Job XXXV. 10 — "Who giveth Songs in the Night." 



He knows but little of the moral economy under which we live, who finds 
ao occasion for praise and thanksgiving to God, except in the day of prosper- 
ity. There is an under-current of teaching running through the whole of 
revelation, which carries to the mind a lesson of mingled tribulation and 
gratitude. While it is true that man was made for happiness, and can only 
legitimately rejoice in that condition; yet since his renunciation of his first 
and blessed estate, since he has become a child of wrath, since true happiness 
has been exiled from this sin-stricken planet, it only remains for him to re- 
joice in those experiences and prospects which shall best conduce to his restora- 
tion to forfeited joys. Now is it a regimen of adversity or prosperit}^ which 
will the better secure the coveted end? Most true it is that He whose other 
name is Love "doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men." 
Therefore He appoints for us a refluent pleasure to every outgoing effort. 
But as we have a haughty spirit whose pride cannot be curbed except by 
rigid rule, passions which cannot be quelled except by overmastering them, 
spiritual enemies only to be conquered by fierce conflict, temptations to be 
resisted but by crucial discipline, so is it also appointed to the end we may be 
perfect and entire, wanting nothing, conquerors, and more than conquerors, 
Christ being our Helper, that the broad arena of soul-efibrt should be darkly 
cliequered with the shadows of adversity. Give place to the testimony of 
Paul, "I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation." Nay witness the un- 
veiling of judgment. Who are the justified? "These are they which came 
out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in 
the blood of the Lamb." Open the Book of Life where you will, and you 
shall be taught that the discipline of sorrow is most wholesome and necessary 
to the soul. Its exigencies demand it. Its calling and election are insecure 
without it. Hence the Pauline teaching, "I take pleasure in infirmities, in 
reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses." The great Apostle 
knew, as God knoweth, and as every man ought to know, that a life of pros- 
perity and pleasure is a poor preparation for judgment, is too replete with 
beguilements to ensure to the soul the safety of its mighty interests. The 
same mouth which teaches that "the pro.sperity of fools shall destroy them," 
and which declares prophetically of the latter days, that then "prosperity 
shall destroy many," declares as well, voicing the confession of the accepted 
in Christ. "It is good for me that I have been afflicted." If then, it be di- 
vinely ordained that adversity should frequently be the pioneer ot Christian 



progress, paving the way to future felicity, shall we not "thank God and take 
courage," even when the skies most darkly frown, and the blast of misfortune 
is fiercest. Like the inferior animals "which lack discourse of reason," shall 
we refuse to endure the present evil for the sake of the future good? Not 
penetrating the surface teaching of the Bible, shall we ignore that routine of 
duty and discipline indispensable to salvation. Absorbed in our selfishness, 
in the cravings and indulgences of the moment, in the lusts of the flesh and 
in the pride of life, shall we defiantly oppose those dispensations of Provi- 
dence which are just as important, in their place, to the soul and the world, 
as the dispensation of grace? If not, and if you are not prepared to gainsay 
the whole drift of this Bible-derived argument, must you not also subscribe 
to the inevitable consequence, viz: that praise and thanksgiving are due, — 
are more due to God in times of adversity, by so much as then the soul is 
designed to be more rapidly advanced in that grace which leads to glory. 

But unlike its great Ensample, the sorrow-tried spirit of man is not left to 
"tread the wine-press alone." "Lo! I am with you alway," says Jesus, the 
friend born for adversity. In every furnace of aflliction, there is a companion 
and comforter whose "form is like the Son of God." In every night, 
however long and dreary, however bitter its cold and biting its blasts, how- 
ever weary its watches or fatiguing its marches, however fruitful of danger 
and filled with aff"rights, still beneath its raven wing there is shelter, and on 
its waves of darkness there is cheer; for its air is ever vibrating with hea- 
venly melodies, — the cadences of consolation flowing from the lips of tha* 
always present and all-sufficieut Helper, "who giveth songs in the night." 
The design of this Discourse, Beloved, is, while reviewing the circum- 
stances naturally suggested for consideration on an occasion like the present, 
to bring distinctly to view "the bright light that is in the clouds;" to call atten- 
tion to the songs which are given of God in every night of trial; or, in plainer 
words, to shew that in civil, as in spiritual, in national as in personal life the 
Divine Governor maketh "the wrath of man to praise Him," ordaineth every 
chastening for the production of "the peaceable fruit of righteousness," sub- 
sidizes all the events and operations of earth and man to the enhancement of 
His own glory: and therefore is entitled to the praise and thanksgiving of 
His creatures, as well in the night-time of their adversity, as in the day-time 
of their prosperity. 

It is a time-honored custom, and as we fain suppose, well-pleasing to God, 
that after the season of annual ingathering is ended, the hearts and hands of 
the people should be lifted up in "prayer and thanksgiving to Almiglity God, 
for the fruits of the earth, and all the other blessings of his merciful Provi- 
dence." The grateful recipients of our Father's bounty should spontaneously 
make such returns of devotion, but our Church stimulates, by giving a proper 
Diroctoi'y for such worship, accepting at the same time the day appointed by 
the civil authority. We are here, then, to-day, gathered around our public 
Altar, summoned by tlie Church, the State, and our own grateful souls. God 
grant that the solemnity of the call, the place, the act and the hour may so 
possess the hciirts of worshippers, as to lift them up to sweeter and holier 
communion with ITim who giveth songs of thanksgiving in the night of our 
naiional inlamilv. 



Never before during the eighty-seven years of this country's civil life, have 
the people gone up to the temple to chant God's praises and record their 
gratitude with such heavy hearts and tearful faces. Never before has the 
world beheld a spectacle so awful, as a "puissant nation mewing her mighty 
youth" for three-quarters of a century, then to wreak her pent-up power in an 
intestine and internecine strife. Never before has the arm of God been so 
clearly bared in behalf of national progress and expansion, as in the experi- 
ence of our history, and never so terrific a retribution visited upon a people 
for their sins and wickedness. Never before have the citizens of a State en- 
joyed for so long and so uninterruptedly the blessings of civil and religious 
liberty; grasping so many of the appointments of mechanical, commercial and 
agricultural success, holding in hand so many helps to mental development 
and intellectual triumj)hs, — and, yet, who upon the instant have experienced 
such complete revolution in the elements and operations of their great economy. 
Never before have God's creatures been so peculiarly blessed with facilities 
for instituting and sustaining spiritual life, the Gospel so freely trumpeted, the 
conscience so unshackled. Bibles so abounding, agencies so numerous, varied 
and energetic; and yet Pagan lauds put us to the blush as to the proportion 
of those earnestly occupied with religious duty. Instead of living up to our 
privileges, the Protean shapes of sin are defiantly paraded through the 
length and breadth of the land. We have not only to mourn over the meaner 
vices, which seek a covert, but "wickedness in high places," clothed in pur- 
ple and ermine, has been and is the warning sign for this perverse generation; 
and "because sentence against our evil works has not been executed speedily, 
the heart of the sons of men seems fully set in them to do evil." And even 
now, when the punitive wrath of the Lord is loosened, the curvetting pride of 
the people scorns the control of bit and bridle. Can it be denied that in this 
eventful crisis, men are less occupied in looking up to learn the will of Hea- 
ven, than in looking around and before them to execute their own. Gainsay 
it who will, the inspiration of the hour is not derived from the breathings of 
the Spirit of God, so much as it is from the exhalations of the seething cal- 
dron of political necessity. Vainly do we invoke a return of peace, and the 
glorious prosperities possessed in the past, until we fulfil the conditions an- 
nexed to the enjoyment of God's favor, and behold the heart of the nation 
bumbled and bowed down, and hear the united utterances of the people, 
blended in sweet accord, and bearing upward the confession — "Father not 
our will but Thine be done " 

I believe there is no difference of opinion in recognizing war as the greatest 
curse which can rest upon a nation, and civil war as the most aggravated 
form of this scourge of God. For two years and a half the laud of our love 
has reeled under this woful infliction. Aud as in all the elements of national 
life, progress and prosperity, we have been habituated to magnitudes, so now 
when the gates of Janus are open, and the bugle blast of war awakens the 
energies of conflict, we behold an array of men speaking the same language and 
heirs to the same inheritance, such as never before were gathered aud armed 
and marshalled for battle. The insatiate earth, now quaking beneath the 
martial tread of a million men, has, since the strife began, given to half that 



number "a soldier's sepulchre." We have not been spared the inevitable 
results of war. It has already ripened its harvest of woe. The wind has 
quickened and maddened into the whirlwind. In our enthusiastic devotion 
to what we believe is the right, in our burning desire for the end, in our 
struggles and sacrifices to attain it, it will not do for us to close our eyes to 
enacting events, or shut our ears to the lessons of the hour, lest perchance, 
we lose the profit which is ordained to follow the devout considering of adver- 
sity. No, no, whatever and whenever the end, we must be true to the Divine 
teachings of the present. And these are only to be received by fairly view- 
ing our surrounding circumstances. We want then least of all from the 
pulpit, the honeyed words which shall speak "peace, peace, when there is no 
peace" "to the wicked saith my God." We want no time-serving appeals to 
patriotism to absorb the mind and heart — only too anxious to be relieved from 
its pressing anxieties — too anxious to be continually beguiled. What we 
want in times like these, when the waters of worldliness so flow in upon the 
sanctuary, as even to threaten extinction to the fire upon the altar, what we 
want, is plain words calling christian men to stand fast by Godly principle 
and Gospel practice, and pointing the Church and the Country to the crimson 
panorama unfolding before them, to demand that they be not blind to the 
pictured teachings of God. I recur then to the fact, that we are engaged in 
a bloody war. Already every city and hamlet has been draped in mourning 
weeds for the fallen brave. Already have wide districts been desolated, and 
well nigh depopulated. Blood has gushed in fountains and treasure been lav- 
ished without reserve. The land is red with its hundred battle fields. Louder 
than the roar of Niagara are the continued thunder and reverberations of 
the furious conflict. Scarcely entombed the victims of one day's fight, ere the 
charge is sounded for another onset. While far away from these scenes of 
carnage there is wailing in the cottage and the mansion. In town and 
country the air is quivering with the moaning cry of the mother and the wife. 
Not now, not now, for the feeble voice of the wounded spirit is unheard 
amid the noise and tumult of war: but hereafter shall we listen to the melting 
histories which connect the home and the battle plain, hereafter see the wreck 
and ravage which brood by the once happy fireside, hereafter look on the 
blighted hopes and crushed affections and lacerated hearts which lie thickly 
scattered along the track of war. Xo forecasting of the future is needed 
however to fill to the overflowing the cup of our calamity. The alienation of 
friends, the suspension of confidence, the impairing of public credit, the de- 
rangement of business, the interruptions to commerce, the conflicts of civil 
and military authority, the apathy of the Church, the lowering of the stand- 
ard of religion, and the alarming increase of luxury and reckless extrava- 
gance, — these superadded to the thousand miseries of our fraternal strife, so 
charge the air with gloom and roll their black clouds overhead, as to leave us 
bowed with sorrow and groping in the dark, with a heart only for the mourn- 
ful cry, "Is it not enough, oh God, is it not enough!" 

But He, who "in the midst of wrath remembereth mercy," He, "who 
giveth songs in the night," hath put a song of thanksgiving in our mouth, 
now, even in this time of dark disaster; for His promise has not failed His 



people, "seed time and harvest" have not been forgotten; the rains descend- 
ing -'upon the just and the unjust," have fertilized the pregnant fields, the 
sun has ripened the corn and the fruit, and to-day the song of our harvest 
home, a song given to us in the night of our civil calamity, goes gladly up to 
God in token of gratitude rekindled and faith unimpaired. 

The statistics of agriculture teach us, that the broad acres of our American 
soil have a productive power equal to the supplj? of the world. The season 
just ended has fully sustained their character for fertility. The seed planted in 
the flowery May has yielded its manifold increase in the golden summer and 
russet autumn. The sweat of the face has not rolled in vain. The tawny 
tiller of the fields has seen the fruit of his toil in "barns filled with plenty 
and presses bursting out with new wine." The lowing herd, the folded flock, 
the various orders of animals, given for man's sustenance and comfort, have 
been fed and fattened by the nutritious grains and grasses which the earth 
has so profusely produced. All nature has been busy in her effort to make 
provision for the wants of man. Offerings are made by meadow and hill, by 
orchard and forest, by vineyard and garden, by babbling brook and rolling 
river, bv spreading lake and heaving ocean. The heats of summer have been 
tempered. The clouds have dropped their rain in refreshing and fertilizing 
showers. The winds have only been loosened from their caves to blow in 
genial and invigorating breezes. The heavenly bodies have beamed their 
beauteous light, and shed their mystic influences upon us, choiring their 
celestial melodies with the many voices of the animate earth. And now 
after this seed time and harvest of bounteous benefaction, we come up to the 
temple, entering "His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise;" 
and joining our hands around the altar, we lift up our grateful song, — floating 
it out upon the night of our national sorrow, and shouting it upward to the 
throne of the glorious Giver, — "Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanks- 
giving and honor and power and might be unto our God forever and ever, 
Amen." 

We are enjoined to give thanks to-day, not only " for the fruits of the 
earth," but also " for all the other blessings of His merciful Providence." 
Let us then give ear to other melodies which mingle with harvest home 
anthems, for be assured, He giveth yet other songs in the night of our nation's 
mourning. On former occasion, like this, have we blessed the Lord, Most 
High, for sparing us the pestilence that walketh in darkness? When has 
there been a period of more general health than the twelve month just past ? 
Have we, in days gone by, praised God for His goodness in giving us His 
Word, His Son and His Spirit ? Are they not continued to us in undiminished 
measure ? Have we formerly lifted our hearts gratefully in view of our 
peculiar and precious Church privileges ? Have we not the Gospel proclaimed 
and the Sacraments dispensed as freely and faithfully now as ever? Do we 
remember the thanks we offered before the throne, in view of the jo\-s conferred 
by the "cloistered sweets" of home and family ? Go back from this Temple 
of Prayer, and stand beneath the shelter of your own root tree, and gazing 
upon the firstlings of your human heart, and the comforts which .-surround them. 
coufes.*^ to God, in a glow of gratitude, that the cup of His kindness is still 



held to your lips. What advantage of education, what agency of evangeliza- 
tion, what organization of benevolence, what comfort of civilized society, what 
intellectual indulgences, what artistic pleasures has the Dispenser of all now 
withholden for a time, that He should not receive the same meed of praise— 
the same awards of gratitude. That there are other lands beyond the sea 
and that there are places near us where the bloody tide of war has rolled, which 
have been deprived certain of the blessings here enumerated, is a truth as |l 

painful as it is positive. But however we may be led by christian charity to | 

commiserate their sufferings, and sympathize in their sorrow, we are not to f\ 

be the less grateful to God, while with lavish hand, He droppeth benefits upon 

us — 

"As laden boughs ia Autuina, 
Fling their ripe fruits to the ground." 

We are each to act with reference to our personal dispensations of grace and 
Providence "To his own Master, each one standeth or falletb," and in the 
day of account, even charity will not suffice to mantle from view our sms of 
ingratitude. Whatever the lessons taught to others, let us fail not to study our 
own However dark the war cloud may lower-however much of desolation 
and death there may be around us, since God has come to us with the saine 
measure and variety of blessed providences, does He not demand of us the 
same measure of praise. When He giveth us, not one but many songs m 
the night, shall we refuse to sing them? Nay, nay, beloved lift up you 
hearts in melody to the Lord, let tributary Psalms go up on high in sweet 
accord ; for God hath "not forgotten to be gracious ' in the '^midst of wrath. 
He remembereth mercy," and "giveth us soags m the night 

Thus do we invite you to "prayer and thanksgiving to Almighty God, for 
the fruits of the earth, and all the other blessings of His merciful Provi- 

^' As in the beginning, we attempted to show that the Christian should thank- 

fuiry.ubm^t to the :xercises of chastening, as conducive to his highest in- 
tully submit to .^ ^ ^.^^^ ^.^^^ ^^.^^ ^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^3 

T^'HircunsLces whch surround 'us. that we may co-operate with the 
ffs^irrtt benign work proposed; and. haply, find occasion as did 
Holy Spirit, m the ben P \ . _^^^^. that it "worketh 

Paul, to -j;-^^^;^^^^f ;^'/;:" . s,all not the scrutiny reveal the moral 
^^T'fte W as 'm ny colduits of grace, rolling into the soul heavenly 
events ^J '^^'^^^Z^ ^el^, and thus shall we find them again like abled 
mIToI bX^ tlL gii of the night with sweetest songs, when kissed 

K: :Cf i™ %.para,.e religions in,;ffere.ce. Nc.. but what 

The P^^^^^Y' -irent religious activity in certain quarters. Not, but what 
there is g-at app-eut ^ehg y_ ^^^^^ .^ ^^^^ 

tHt^t posTb e u tlic^iature of things, that a people should endure the 
u d oonvulsions of civil war without a benumbing of religious sensibility, 

throes --[^^^2^1:^^^,, brother in deadly strife, can you let loose the 
"""'l f"c y -"^ invoke its unbridled indulgence as leading the 

Zt ^Xl ---s. and at the same time, expect that charity and its 



sister virtues should have the same development and exercise. When dove- 
eyed peace is frightened away to her thickest covert by the hoarse baying of 
the hounds of war, as they go coursing through the land, and when the 
Church of God mails herself for the strife, and takes up carnal weapons to aid 
in establishing a kingdom that is of this world, what other consequence can 
ensue than that Christians should be secularized, and the tone of piety im- 
paired. So sensitive is the Gospel, so single-eyed the ministry, that the 
moment we commingle things civil and things sacred, the former usurps 
dominion, and claims co-ordinate, if not paramount position in working out the 
puposes of God. Tlie effect of all this is immediate and demoralizing upon 
the popular mind. Only yesterday, I read in the daily press of the great 
metropolis of this Western continent, that never before had been made such 
lavish preparations for the carnival of fashion as are now in progress. Mean- 
time, men give largely to benevolent objects. Churches are busy in their 
machinery of evangelization, and as far as the human eye can scan the field of 
moral effort, all seems promising and progressive. But, oh I let us remember 
that gold and the gospel arc not complements of each other, that it is "not by 
might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord ;" that only by closest 
adhesion to the fundamental truths of Christ's religion we can expect to carry 
the Church through such an ordeal as the present without spot or blemish. 
The highest order of patriotism, the purest devotion to country, the largest 
sacrifices which men can make for the preservation of free institutions, are 
only consistent, when brought to harmonize with true loyalty to Christ. I 
honor, with all the reverential feeling of my heart, the man, who, under 
sublime conviction, will do and die in defence of noble principle ; but I cannot 
honor him, who, in any emergency, compromises the honor of Jesus ; who 
cannot pursue his line of effort holding it parallel from first to last with the path 
of gospel duty. And here stands the baneful influence of the hour. The 
niuxim, that human laws are silent or suspended, because of the exigencies of 
war, argues not that the laws of God are liable to such suspension. Never 
but once did the Sun stand still upon Gibeon, and the Moon in the valley 
of Ajalon. Because man has mighty purposes to effect, he may not neglect 
or defy for the time the eternal and unchanging decrees of the Most High, 
Malice and hate and evil speaking are just as sinful now as ever they were. 
Love to enemies, long suffering and forgiveness, are just as inflexibly 
demanded of Christians as ever they were. Insulted patriotism and righteous 
indignation and necessary retaliation are beautiful, it may be, but most be- 
guiling phrases. No, no, war is impossible. I repeat, in the earthly order, or 
rather disorder of things, without dragging in its bloody train, evils of well 
nigh every grade and character. What mainly concerns us communing in 
this House of Prayer, is that they should have invaded the Church in deso- 
lating raids, and lowered the standard of its spirituality. But from this cloud 
which thickens our gloom, is there not the reflection of a star beam? What 
song is written upon the folds of this black canopy pencilled by the ray of 
Heaven? "He will not always chide, neither keepeth He His anger forever." 
" Israel ! fear not, for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy 
name, tliuu art mine." 'Cease ye from man, whose breath is in hi.s nortrils." 



10 

"Put not your trust in princes." "Vain is the help of man," ''Return unto 
me, for I have redeemed thee." The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice. 
Yea, let all the people praise Thee. 

This is an era of suspicion. Confidence, that plant of slow growth, seems 
to have withered under the sun of war. The faith which man had in his 
fellow, the trust wont to be reposed in all the domestic and business relations 
of life is suddenly and wofully impaired. That beautiful feeling which 
seemed almost to prepare and pave the way for the entrance of the faith of 
Christ, is in good degree excluded from the dealings and intercourse of society. 
Thei-e is a disposition prevalent to erect tribunals of judgment even upon the 
most fragile and unworthy foundations. Men are daily electing themselves 
judges of their brethren, and are prepared to pronounce hasty decisions, and 
execute summary penalties upon all who do not square with their personal 
decrees of right and wrong Congregations of censors, with itching ears, 
are waiting upon the pulpit utterances of to-day, disposed to applaud or con- 
demn, according to the varying standards of individual minds. Woe! woe! 
to the men pleasers in times like these, when God especially demands 
independent spokesmen for His independent truth. Intolerance, the hand- 
maiden of suspicion, is busy with her brawling tongue. Differences in minor 
matters, as between those who agree in great essentials, are enough now to 
break the bond of faith, and even of association. Applauded to the echo is 
the sentiment, that he who is once called in question, no matter by whom 
or for what, should henceforth be excluded from all fiduciary positions. In 
political life, in the direction of military affairs, in Christian society, in the 
church, — her clergy and laity, — who dare say that suspicion, prowling in her 
mask, is not exercising an arrogated and unholy office. Mutual confidence 
is the cohering principle of all earthly organizatians. When you strike at 
its root, you are destroying the life of every thing which gives value to human 
society. You are attempting to overturn the foundation of every moral and 
political fabric. When you introduce suspicion into the Church of God, you 
throw a firebrand upon the altar, you disturb the communion of saints, you 
break up the fellowship of those who are together enlisted in the Army of 
Christ, you interfere with the publication and spread of the gospel, you 
attempt to choke the utterances and chain the hands of those who have divine 
commissions to speak the same unchanging truth, — no matter whether it be 
to some a stumbling block and to others foolishness, — still now and always 
"to them that believe the power of God to salvation." I could tell you of 
those, who have been standing in positions, where God has placed and kept 
them, and who have been deprived the backing of a unanimous popular senti- 
ment touching the issues of the hour. Around them have raged the angry 
winds and waves, while upon the gospel rock they have kept their footing, 
with eye upturned and finger pointing only to Christ as "He who hath his 
way in the whirlwind," who rideth upon the storm, "whom the winds and the 
sea obey," and who only has power "to rule the raging of the sea," and 
"speak peace" to its troubled waters. Indignant voices have called to these 
tried servants of the Lord to cast themselves into the flood. No word of 
approval from brethren who are sheltered in havens where genial winds lilnw 



11 

always in the same direction. No sympathy because of the circumstances of 
trial by which God has been pleased to surround his servants. But stimulated 
to enthusiasm by the awful warring of the elements, (contemplated from a 
safe distance,) these critical members of the priestly brotherhood are unable 
to appreciate that calm and unchangeable discharge of duty, which no element 
of passion or power can suspend or modify. It is only left them, then, to 
withdraw that confidence which has become extortionate in its demands as it 
is morbid in its sensibility. In bettor days and under a clearer light, we shall 
hope for its restoration to healthy life. But let us not neglect the teaching 
imparted by these painful facts to which we have referred. As they combine 
to make a very important element in this dispensation of chastening, as they 
deepen the gloom of our moral night, what song, GodI what cheering 
strain bursts out from the darkness, given of Thee to strengthen and gladden 
the hearts of Thy people? "By terrible things in righteousness, wilt thou 
answer us, God of our salvation; who art the confidence of all the ends of 
the earth" — "who stilleth the noise of the seas and the tumult of the people." 
"Some trust in chariots and some in horses: but we will remrimber the name 
of the Lord our God." "It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put any 
confidence in man." "I will trust in the covert of thy wings." They that 
trust in the Lord shall be as Mt. Zion, which cannot be removed but abideth 
forever." "Thou art my hiding place, thou shalt preserve me from trouble; 
thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance." 

The present is an era of revolution. So calmly and peacefully have rolled 
away the decades of our national existence, so completely have we been exempt 
from the ordinary convulsions of the state, that when civil war unfurled its 
baneful flag, the revolutionary germs, pressed down so long beneath the sub- 
lime march of law and order, at once shot up to vigorous life. Two years and 
a half of conflict have aftbrded ample time for these germs to fructify; and 
now we find a proclivity in every department of our aggregate life to re-organi- 
zation, or at least to re-adjustment. I speak not only of theorists who would 
seize upon the crisis as a period opportune for political and social experiment, 
but I point you to a rapidly developing temper of unrest and lawlessness 
which pervades the ranks of the people. Submission to rightful authority, 
acquiesence in the established order of society are not infrcfjuentl}'' and very 
defiantly brought into question, even as the abuse of power and privilege is 
also become a crying evil. All this is fearfully ominous. Great changes are 
doubtless impending in the constitutional life and administration of our 
institutions, and we should not be surprised to see all the forces of the popular 
mind and heart exercised in the issues now making iiead. There are groat 
changes in the relations of trade already eti'ected and greater ones in progress. 
The rush of events have crushed or cast aside many who controlled society, 
or directed the current of business, or gave complexion to political affairs; 
while others have wakened to .^uddeu wealth or found "greatness thrust upou 
them." In places, poverty is pinching those who have commanded the 
luxuries of a Sybarite. Again we observe the newly enriched vieiug with 
the habitue of Fashion's temple in the lavish expenditure of money, in an 
extravagance, a luxurious indulgence unexampled in modern times. And 



12 

this Saturnalia seems not yet to have attained to the full unbridled license to 
appetite which it proposes. The mind of the country is in that peculiarly 
plastic state which enables it with extreme facility to adapt itself to new forms 
of thought, new modes of life, novelties of all kinds, though the changes be 
as rapid and as varied as the quick and brilliant combinations of the kaleido- 
scope. The era, I repeat, is intensely charged with the explosive and 
incendiary elements of revolution. No cloud more portentous than this, that 
has, as yet, rolled up and mingled its black volumes with the darkness that 
curtains our skies; and yet He "who giveth songs in the night," has mani- 
fested his goodness by thus far holding in check the storm power which 
slumbers in that cloud. No daring demagogue has been permitted to combine 
these agencies of evil, and launch them as poisoned javelins against the 
heart of the nation. Nay, may not this very condition of things be the grand 
preparation for the on-coming glory of the Lord; His Holy Spirit pressing 
upon the plastic heart those saving truths which made no inscription there 
while it was hardened by habit and fixed in the iron grooves of precedent and 
convention. We know not what will be, but this we know, that "no weapon 
formed against Thee shall prosper," "The righteous shall wash his feet in 
the blood of the wicked." Though the peoj^le rage and imagine a vain thing, 
yet God bringeth to naught their evil imaginations, and "casteth down them 
that exalt themselves against the Lord." Though the power of the people be 
as the roar and rush of a flood, yet is "the Lord mightier than many waters;" 
and as " He measureth the waters in the hollow of His hand," so will He 
measure and mete out, bind or loosen, the forces of the people. 

The present is a tragical era. In passing through the inevitable experi- 
ences of national life, we have come at length to stand as actors in or audience 
to a fearful tragedy. No one can look upon the scene without emotion, for 
each one "has some friend or brother there." Not a breeze that sweeps 
across battle plain or hospital but bears to us the moans of the wounded or 
the farewells of the dying. The ear has become familiarized to sounds of 
woe, and the eye to every variety of bodily mutulation and every attitude of 
death. Consequent upon all this comes a reduction of the value of human 
life. The ranks thinned to-day are filled to-morrow and the mournful dead 
march is directly changed into the gleeful quickstep. And as we grow indif- 
ferent to the value of life, we become proportionately indifferent to those great 
moral interest attached to life. Therefore, vice riots in the track of war, and 
in the intervals of the acts of the great tragedy, minor tragedies have place. 
It is diflicult for us, so habituated is the mind to our traditions of peace, it is 
very difficult for us fairly to realize that we are making for history the blood- 
iest record which has ever crimsoned its scroll. It is very difficult for us to 
adapt oui'selves to this dispensation of death. It is difficult for us to appre- 
ciate the fact that we have suddenly become not only a military but a warlike 
people. But difficult as it is, the mind must open for the entrance, and widen 
for the embrace of these tragical ideas. Peace has here achieved her sub- 
limest victories. And now that she is dethroned, shall red-handed war vie 
with her in securing triumphs as magnificent? It is not the prowess of the 
conqueror or tlie trophies of the conquest which can mau-li the glories of 



13 

peace, but only the ultimate adjustment of vital issues, the permanent settle- 
ment of those vexed questions which are ever threatening convulsion and 
strife. I have no space here to discuss the anti-christian aspect of war, but 
accepting for the moment the popular sentiment, that when begun, it is direc- 
ted of God for the accomplishment of His own purposes, how can we fail to 
thank Him this day, that "wc are accounted worthy to suflFer," if so be we 
can thus be the instruments for working His mighty will. If "we be true 
men," we should be ready to serve Him, by our death as well as by our life. 
And this is the song which breathes out upon the night, the night which hides 
■from the stars the bloody work of man, — " For whether we live, we live unto 
the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the. Lord; whether wc live there- 
fore, or die, we are the Lords." 

The present is an era of unmaslcing. The stern events now marching be- 
fore us in rapid procession, tear away as they pass, the masks from men's 
faces. The world is so given over to dissembling that the great dramatist 
who wrote "the world a stage" and "men the players," might with equal verisi- 
militude, have pictured society as an unending masquerade. But now that 
features are revealed, we are surprised not only to observe deformities where 
we imagined symmetry, but also to discover the lineaments of virtue, where 
we conceived it had no place. With judgment begun at the house of God let 
us remark the development of a high ministerial fidelity in some, as con- 
trasted with a disposition in others to succumb to the secular influences of the 
hour. The sweets of popularity, the honors and emoluments of civil or mil- 
itary service, I may not say, have deluded any from that singleness of purpose 
in saving souls to which they solemnly gave themselves. No, for I award to 
them the credit of honest conviction and holy sincerity. Still is it left to me 
and to many, to deplore the error, and its grievous influence now and here- 
after, over those who look to the Church for the undimmed reflections of 
"truth as it is in Jesus." How many are there among Clergy aod Laity who 
have revealed the most beautiful charity, who have been not only "slow to speak 
and slow to wrath," but who have ministered to the sick and wounded, not asking 
whether friend or foe, and played an angel part in the drama of death. How 
many have made patriotism the pretext for plunder, and preyed upon their 
country in the hour of her trial. How many again have offered their choicest 
gifts, and spared not husband or son. What pictures of folly sketched by 
those "dressed in a little brief authority." And again, what sublime 
daring — what heroic resolve — what magnificent achievement. How many 
cluistian men and women have entered the embattled arena, and there exer- 
cised offices of help for soul and body. What beautiful benevolence, what 
hmmtiful beneficence have been organized and dispensed by these evangelists 
of tin; camp and the hospital. Again what shirking of duty, what timidity, 
what time-serving and men-fearing has there not been, — and cloaked in man- 
tles of christian charity. 

While these times of convulsion have not given birth to any great, repre- 
sentative men, (men who are like suns to a system, — put them where you 
will at once becoming centres of attraction and light,) still have they given 
no toleration to the mere demagogue and pretender. Tf no worthy leader, no 



14 

well-entitled teacher of the people has appeared, true it is that no charlatan 
has been able to enlist their sympathies and rally their energies for his ag- 
grandizement or their destruction. If the unmasking has revealed no great- 
ness, it has at least precluded much imposture. I regard this ingredient o^ 
our bitter cup as no slight alleviation. When we see men as they are, we 
can mark them for what they are worth. And whether their worth be great 
or little, it enables us to estimate the value of their agency in compassing the 
ends we have in view. 

In turning away from this, the last contemplation we indulge of the char- 
acteristics and events of the day, shall we not give ear to Him "who giveth 
songs in the night," that ouf souls may be cheered, and their gratitude 
aroused? "For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, nor hid 
that shall not be known" — "Giving thanks unto the Father who hath deliv- 
ered us from tbe power of darkness" — The Lord is my light and my salva- 
tion; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I 
be afraid?" 

Thus, even sitting in our thickest gloom, regarding our sharpest sorrows, 
estimating the burden of our heaviest woe, can we regard the calamities of 
the times as other than the chastening of the Lord, and so, designed for our 
spiritual good; and therefore, demanding the tribute of thanks to Him who 
"chasteneth only them whom he loveth." As we have regarded certain of 
the aspects of our era, do we not find in each a theme for praise; so that we 
rise from these reflections to the blessed solace, that our loving Father never 
faileth to "temper justice with mercy," and therefore, while he chastens His 
people with darkness, he "giveth them songs in the night." 

As I approach the conclusion of my Discourse, you doubtless observe, 
Beloved, that I have omitted all jubilations over victory, all appeals to patri- 
otism, all discussion of the great social question which is commingled with 
the issue of arms, all pastoral advice touching your duties as citizens, in a 
political crisis like the present. Not but what I have in common with all 
whose interests are jeoparded by the convulsions of the country, clear and 
emphatic convictions upon those great questions submitted for the arbitrament 
of arms or public opinion, still have I clearer and more emphatic convictions 
touching the office and duties of the Christian minister, and the solen)n pro- 
prieties of the place of prayer. 

When victories mean nothing but wholesale slaughter and no great or per- 
manent advantage secured, the victory mainly ascertained by measurement of 
blood and calculation of corpses, I fail to see in it the occasion of thanksgiv- 
ing to God. But we may thank Him, and must thank him with all the devo- 
tion of our heart for the return of peace and the agencies which t^liall have 
secured it, whether they be triumphs in the field, the cabinet, the legislative 
halls or the ballot box, for the cessation from strife and the ro-establishniont 
of order, for the enthronement of law and the restoration of social liarmony. 
No voice of authority has taught us that this day is yet come, and while we 
pray for its rapid appearing, let us prepare our songs of praise to Him who 
alone giveth tlie victory. 



15 

I attempt not now, I never have attempted while exercising the office of 
your spiritual teacher, to impart lessons of political economy, to make inflam- 
matory appeals to your patriotism, or to stimulate the passions of conflict. I 
am very free to say, that I regard such things as an abuse of privilege, as 
derogatory to the office and work of the Christian minister, as a betrayal of 
the trust you have reposed in me to whom you should look alone for guidance 
in your pilgrimage to Heaven, The Pastor of souls is not the man, the 
Church consecrated to the sole service and worship of God is not the place for 
the argument of secular issues. Too much of this, too much of this already 
for the influence of the ministry, the spiritual welfare of the people, and the 
good of the country. High and clear above all the sounds of earth, like the 
pibroch piercing the air of the Highlands, must the Christian clarion sound 
its call to arm for the weal of the soul and the honor of Jesus. I leave for 
others that for which I have no time, no talent, no vocation, — while the cause 
of Christ and the soul are committed to me as one of the watchmen on the 
walls of Zion. And though the popular mind now is warped by the strain 
and pressure of an exacting sentiment, the day will come (for "the word of 
our God endureth forever,") when we shall have a return to the simplicity of 
Gospel preaching, when inflammable themes shall be excluded from our 
pulpits, when the altar shall not be a tribune of the people, when congrega- 
tions shall not gather for political instruction and secular meditation, but sim- 
ply to receive the lively oracles of God , which are only able to make them 
"wise unto salvation." 

As it is a maxim of the world, beloved, in time of peace to prepare for war, 
so let it be a maxim of the church, in time of war to prepare for peace. ' 
Though God now only "giveth songs in the night," yet hereafter will He 
give us Psalms for the morning and Hymns for the noonday. And may 
not some melodies be warbled now by our own conscious souls, other than those 
which He 'givethV Is it not time to cease our evil speaking of each other, 
our suspicions, our false judgments? Shall we not open our arms once more 
to embrace the friends whose sympathy and love we have frozen by our icy 
manner, or forfeited by our open hostilities. How long, .0 God! how long 
shall our Christian"ch,irity refuse fellowship to those who only differ from us 
in questions we shall ignore in death and forget in eternity. Let us, on this 
day, when we come to thank God for His preserving care, and acknowledge 
with gratitude His chastening, let us bury deep in the grave of forgiveness 
tlic petty animosities which have embittered our lives and suspended our growth 
in grace. Here we are, standing in the vestibule of death, our'friends each 
day, passing within its gloomy portal to return no more, and yet we are 
wrangling with brethren around us the questions which convulse the land we 
are leaving. Let us rise to higher levels of thought, to more loving forms of 
life, to the more momentous interests given us to guard. The greater our 
freedom from passion the greater our liberty, the purer our faith the nobler 
our patriotism, the more loving and long suffering our human hearts the sooner 
will they thrill responsive to the joyous strains of peace. 1^ Be this then the 
theme of our song in the night of our national sorrow, and soon the darkness 
•shall be lifted, the orient shall kindle to beauty, and the morning nf peace 



16 



make glad the hearts of our people. The -songs of the night" shall be changed 
to the anthems of day, and the voice of thanksgiving send upward to God the 
refrain of the soul.-"weeping may endure for the night but joy cometh in 
the morning." 



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